by Mark Ratzky, publicity department, Sacramento Harness Association

Sacramento, CA — Peaches And Cream, who has clicked in four of her nine starts this season, and Capeous N, who upset her at 11-1 last week in a very game performance, get a rematch in Wednesday night’s $4,900 feature for the pacing fillies and mares at Cal-Expo.

Peaches And Cream is a 4-year-old homebred daughter of Little Steven who races for Wayne and Rod Knittel, with “Sparky” Clarke conditioning and Bruce Clarke at the controls. The hard-knocking mare has proven she can be effective on the lead, from a stalking position, and from well off the pace, as tactics dictate.

The bay miss rode a live cover trip to the stretch and came a sizzling :26 final quarter to be up in the final strides at this level on February 16. Then, in her next start, after being last in the early stages, she found herself with too much to do when arriving at the head of the lane, and had to settle for the show money.

Peaches And Cream returned to her winning ways on March 1, as she was able to sit a great pocket trip to the drive, then had little trouble overhauling the leader, going on to a five length romp, while establishing a new lifetime standard of 1:53.3 in the process.

Hammered down to 50 cents on the dollar in last week’s outing, Clarke put the Knittel color-bearer on the engine once the field passed the quarter, and looked solid swinging for home. Capeous N, however, had other ideas, as she was up to challenge from a first-over position and was just too much for the favorite when it counted, prevailing by a length for the upset.

Capeous N is a 7-year-old New Zealand import that carries the Summersby Stable banner, takes her lessons from Jamie Sullivan, and will once again have the driving services of Rocky Stidham. She is eyeing her fourth win from just seven appearances on the year.

After kicking off 2007 with a pair of victories at this level, the import suited up for the three legs of the Bob Gordon Series and was unable to make much impact while taking on some very tough colts. She returned with distaff company for last week’s clash and was extra game in the first-over victory with Stidham. She figures to get a lot more respect at the windows this time around.

Rounding out the line-up are Little Bit Country with Steve Hyman; Stick Up for Gilbert Herrera; Dayahana, to be guided by Rick Plano; B G Prodigy for Jim Lackey; Charter Ridge with Scott Cisco; and Jessalilbit, who leaves from the outside with Ed Hensley in the bike. An 11-race card is scheduled and the feature goes as the fifth on the evening.

Jump right into Bal-Cal pool

Wednesday night means another renewal of the Bal-Cal Pick 4 Challenge, a $1 wager that combines the last two races (Races 9 and 10) at Balmoral Park in Chicago with races 9 and 10 from Cal-Expo, and comes attached with a $25,000 guaranteed pool. Post time for the first leg of the Bal-Cal Challenge will be at approximately 8:03 p.m. (PDT).

Last week’s return was nearly $1,400 for a dollar, while there were jackpots of $20,000, $19,000 and $18,000 last fall for correctly forecasting the two Illinois winners with the two from California.

For a little help in putting together a ticket, we went to Roger McDow. In addition to being an owner and breeder, Roger is one of the sharpest handicapper/bettors we know, so we asked him for some general advice.

“I look at the Bal-Cal the same way I would any other Pick 4,” Roger explained. “What I do is look at each race separately, before I even think about how I’m going to put together a ticket. I think a lot of people think of the ticket and look at all the races at the same time.

“What I try to do is to break each race into layers, without necessarily getting too specific. It could be an A and B horse as top contenders, followed by three horses who have a chance, and then the ones I would consider to be toss outs. As far as singles go, if you see an obvious one, that’s probably the same single everybody else has. There’s no value doing that.

“The value in a bet like the Pick 4 is to beat the singles, so that’s what I’m always looking to do. As far as the size of the play, I can say I’ve ended up with $36 tickets that looked to have plenty of value, and on other occasions I’ll end up with a $108 ticket that may not offer nearly as much value.

“Again, for me, the key is to look at each of the races individually before even considering anything like how much I’m going to spend on a ticket. I write everything down, and then I go back and try to build the best ticket I can. For sure, I’m never going to play a ticket that has too many short prices and could actually come back less than the amount I’m investing.”

Live racing resumes Wednesday, March 14, at Cal-Expo, continuing through Saturday. Post time each night is at 5:35 p.m. (PDT). On Wednesday, admission is free, plus Cal-Expo offers a complete Lasagna dinner, with salad and bread, for just $2.00.

Cal-Expo now offers Guaranteed $10,000 pools on all Pick-4’s and the New Pick-5!